27 January 2014
beleaguer
[bih-lee-ger]
verb (used with object)
1. to surround with military forces.
2. to surround or beset, as with troubles.
Origin:
1580–90; be- + leaguer
Related forms
be·lea·guer·er, noun
Synonyms
2. harass, pester, badger, bother, vex, annoy, plague, hector.
Anagram
eagle rube
eager blue
ear bug eel
a beer glue
Today’s aphorism
Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.
– Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
On this day
27 January – International Holocaust Memorial Day in remembrance of the 11 million victims of the Nazi holocaust before and during the Second World War. Victims included 6 million Jews (3 million of whom were Polish), 3 million Polish Christians, 2 million gypsies, and millions of others, including Africans, Asians, people with mental or physical disabilities, Communists, Socialist, Unionists, intellectuals, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Slavs, Freemasons, political activists and anyone else either opposed to Nazi ideology, or living in land Hitler wanted (particularly Poland) or who didn’t fit his idea of a perfect master race. The date was chosen because 27 January 1945 was the date that Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz-Birchenau, the largest of the Nazi death camps.
27 January 1756 – birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer.
27 January 1926 – In London, John Logie Baird publicly demonstrates a revolutionary new invention, the television system.
27 January 1945 – The Soviet Army liberates survivors of the largest Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz in Poland, where it is estimated more than 1,000,000 Jews and tens of thousands of others were executed.
27 January 1967 – Outer Space Treaty was signed by 60 countries, including the USA and USSR, prohibiting the placement of weapons of mass destruction in space.
27 January 1973 – the Vietnam War formally ends with a treaty signed between the USA, North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
27 January 1984 – Michael Jackson’s hair catches on fire while he is singing ‘Billy Jean’ during filming of a Pepsi commercial.